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I laughed more than I should have at this!

Aye that's fair - we've gone too far the other way. As I say, a team with Butland and a Tav/McLean or whoever is fine - when it's 3 or 4 of those in a team all of a sudden you're chasing shadows against the likes of Ross County. As an aside, Hendersons been a terrible buy for Ajax by all accounts and has been bombed out of the England squad. I agree with your point though.

First of many hopefully

The difference between the two is that all the top and wealthy clubs value players as you have stated. Younger players with potential come at a premium. Its why Wolves paid £35 million for Fabio Silva and Everton paid 12 million for Nathan Patterson with about 15 games under his belt. The 'young is best' approach is fine if the players are achievable. I'm not arguing against that, I'm arguing its a hard market for us to compete in. Even Ajax and PSV who have more spending power than us go out and bring in experienced guys like Jordan Henderson and Luuk de Jong to play alongside the prospects.

Not a huge outlay, maybe he'll be getting a jefte signing on fee. I'll get my coat.

Sign him 😀

He does look about 12. And before anyone asks, yes, get him in the team.

Just a giant goalie 😁

Is that Ridvans wee wee wee brother?

We couldn't pick up a world class 33 year old either. The difference between the two, conventionally at least, is that the younger player gets better the more he plays with good coaching whilst the older player will physically wane - and usually that happens quite suddenly (Casemiro, Utd). After a couple of seasons the 33 year old has 0 resale value whilst the 19 year old can be sold for millions. Jeremie Frimpong for them being a case in point. I'm not advocating for playing the full B team XI btw, players like Butland, Balogun and Dessers I'd keep but I wouldn't add too many more who are pushing 30+ Also there's a difference between 'experience' and age. Most fans would say Bukayo Saka is a young player at 22 but he's played over 250 games for club and country. Is that inexperience? That's probably why Tav looks cooked, the miles on the clock in recent years have caught up with him.

Like Leo di Caprio and his girlfriends I think always take the younger option, but unlike Leo di Caprio and his girlfriends its not always possible for us to pick up a world class 19 year old.

I think I've just realised why the club were/are shit scared of developing young players in the lower leagues and to now btw...

We should be fielding teams that are 24 years old on average, max 25 imo. A team good enough to compete now and will get better in years to come (Arsenal down south). Last season we were fielding XI's that were pushing 30. No one in European football is looking at a team in Scotland choc full of 30 year olds who finished runners up and thinking 'I might take a punt on him you know'. Hence why no decent bids came in for Lundstram or Barisic and we've got players leaving for free en masse. To the point about letting Kent and Morelos go for nothing - that's poor decision making from the board, by all accounts we had offers. We probably got those offers because those two players were of a good age to sign. Football at the top level is trending younger recently, just look at the premier league. But aye, let's bring in 33 year old bosmans instead of looking at players in their early 20's for our midfield. Like a Barron.

No one said that we wanted a team full of youth.

Those who want us to compile a team of late teens and early 20yr olds better be prepared for a good few years of being second best before fruitition. I know we have been 2nd best more times than not recently but IMO we will not be challenging for major honours unless we have a few old head experienced pro's in our team. We may land lucky and quickly be like an Ajax having a few good years but that only lasts so long then it's back to being also rans for a while. Edit to add ; would i be happy signing Kenny McLean or his like? yes i would.

Of course a balance is required, but right now we're not short of experienced players, we need to up the number of young, hungry players who are willing to learn and improve their game. I'd far rather see us sign Barron from the sheep than McLean, granted he's not as good a player right now, but at we have to develop young signings to gain a better team and more value in the squad. This should also alleviate our ridiculous wage bill - Apparently higher than Atalanta's. Youan from Hibs isn't a bad buy at £2.5M as well btw, he's done well in a shite team. Anyway, all of this is pure conjecture, McLean is probably just the usual lazy rumour.

Same as any 'team' in any job - experience and maturity is needed at times. Especially at a club where there's an intense pressure to win every match.

You need a range of experience in the squad.

Why is it common sense? And I'm not being deliberately obtuse either - it's just that on the face of it we're in a 2 team league where we generate 4x the revenue of 3rd place in the table. If we're bringing in older heads with winning experience then I'd get it. Is it a very Scottish thing (Rangers exc) to do to bring in a 35 year old player who's done at the top level but can do a turn in Scotland?

There's a wider point about our teams legs being shot too - which is why I think we need younger and mobile players.

For sure!👏

Player trading isn't just about punting a Bassey every year, Sakala is a good example of good player trading too. So was the likes of Pedro Mendes, pay 3 million get two good years out of him get 3 million back etc. If we get our money back for Dessers or Danilo after a couple of seasons thats fine too.. What it isn't about is investing 7 million in a young English winger and let him walk after 4 years, or not move on a late 20's Croatian international for cash. Its a balance and we haven't hit that balance at all. In fact we have been miles off. If we can find a few Steve Davis, Alan McGregors, Jermaine Defoes and Scott Arfields we absolutely should.